U.S. Pat. No. 5,798,519 (the ""519 Patent) teaches golf ball tracking systems for driving ranges, and is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
Current driving ranges sometimes use targets and flags positioned on the driving range in an effort to make the driving range appear more like a golf course, and to provide a little entertainment to an otherwise monotonous practice. Golfers cannot, however, actually determine how well they hit the ball with respect to a target except for a subjective estimation. This assumes that the golfer can even see the ball: the distances are so far, it is sometimes difficult for golfers to see where their ball actually went.
Teaching by pros at golf driving ranges is also popular. There is currently no automated feedback available to golfers at a driving range to provide teaching and instruction feedback without a live person.
It is, accordingly, an object of the invention to provide interactive gaming and teaching at a golf driving range. Still another object is to provide electronic gaming between golfers at one or more driving ranges. Yet another object of the invention is to provide quantitative feedback to golfers at a driving range as golf teaching instruction, without the aid of a live person. These and other objects will be apparent in the description which follows.
In one aspect, the invention utilizes a 3D golf ball tracking system taught by the ""519 patent. A foot position mat is placed at one or more tee off positions. The foot position mat has a plurality of sensors (e.g., switches or force sensing elements or resistors) located in the mat to spatially map objects which rest on the mat. For example, in the preferred aspect, the mat provides information suitable to define the outline of the golfer""s feet on the mat. The mat can include an internal microprocessor to process and define that outline from the sensors; but preferably the mat connects to the associated reporting station (e.g., reporting station 320, FIG. 10, of the ""519 patent) at that tee off position so that data from the sensors can be transmitted directly to the reporting station or central computer (e.g., the processor 316, FIG. 10 of the ""519 patent).
In another aspect, the invention provides active feedback for teaching of players on the foot position mat. The player either enters in the desired target at the user station (e.g., reporting station 320), or the system assumes the target according to foot position and landing of the ball. Thereafter, the system informs the user how far she was from the desired target and, if desired, how well her foot position was relative to the target.
In this manner, the invention of certain aspects operates as an automated golfing coach.
The invention of another aspect provides network gaming between one or more golfers at a driving range, or between one or more golfers at other driving ranges. In this aspect, these multiple golfers are each playing on ranges with the 3D tracking system of the ""519 Patent; and the system further tracks designated targets between players to present a unified game to the golfers. In a further aspect, a foot position mat is provided to each golfer to add another dimension (including optional real-time feedback) to the golfers during the game.